What people are saying about Too Much of the Wrong Thing

At first glance Claire Hopple’s stories appear delightfully off kilter, even laugh-out-loud funny, but the flashes of wisdom start early in this collection and they don’t stop. This is a world of constant disorientation where people aim for connection and gamble on intimacy, no matter how precarious. Hopple’s small towns are in decline and her families are fragile. Everybody lives here: older relatives who unravel or disappear; a sibling tipping over into frightening criminality; three generations of women with the same name in the same house who manage to lose each other; a hitchhiker who proves the lie of American life; a couple of friends from childhood, forever connected in a web of communal memory. After watching Hopple’s characters question the scripts they’ve been handed, we are left to marvel at the hard work of being lost.

~ Jan Stinchcomb, author of Find the Girl

Claire Hopple’s short story collection is a nuanced tug o’war of sardonic words and the playful triteness of the world wherein everything is the same, introspection spawns introspection, and life itself is a non sequitur. Too Much of the Wrong Thing is a beautifully woven collection of pale scenes and strange adult feelings that demands to be read.

~ Mallory Smart, author of I Want To Feel Happy But I Only Feel__

Claire Hopple is a fantastic writer. A killer, really. Her characters take bubble baths when their moms die; keep porcupines as pets; chew nicotine gum but still smoke because they want to capitalize on addiction. Her stories are gold plated in form, but punk at the core. Too Much of the Wrong Thing is a going away party for yourself.

~ Bud Smith, author of Dust Bunny City

Claire Hopple’s Too Much of the Wrong Thing is a wonderful collection. She explores perspective and emotion with dexterity. Her stories remain in the readers consciousness accumulating into a tapestry of vibrant characters and prose that isn’t afraid to pack a punch.